er
might be to perish.

Do you not think with pity of the unhappy fugitive, obliged thus
suddenly to leave his home and all he most loved on earth? If at the
time he caused the death, he was working in his vineyard, the
pruning-hook must be left to rust on the branch. If he was ploughing
with his yoke of oxen, they must be left lowing in the furrow. If he was
busied in his harvest-field, the sheaves must be left unbound, and the
reapers receive their wages from another's hands. If he was returning
home fatigued at evening after the toils of the day, and longing for
grateful repose, he dare give no "sleep to his eyes, nor slumber to his
eye-lids." His child may be lying pining in sickness at his cottage, but
it may endanger him to return to clasp that and his other little ones in
his embrace, and bid them a fond farewell. He may have no time to alter
his raiment or take even his scrip or pilgrim-staff. The Avenger of
blood may be in the adjoining street, or in the dwelling hard by.
Another hour may be fatal;--"Skin for skin, all that a man hath will he
give for his life."[1] Off he speeds in breathless haste--now along the
level road--now up the steep ascent--with his breast heaving, and drops
of perspiration standing on his brow. Friends may meet him, but with a
wave of the hand, and shouting "Goel! Goel!" he rushes on with fleet
footstep. Parched with thirst in the hot noonday, he turns a longing eye
on the ripe grapes that are hanging in purple clusters on the wayside,
or on the water trickling down the narrow ravine. But he dare not pause.
Knowing full well that the Avenger is in close pursuit, he hurries on
with unabated ardor. Happy sight, when he sees at last, on some mountain
slope, the longed-for shelter! Happy, when, weary and footsore, covered
with dust, the portals of the city close him in. A few moments before,
had he been overtaken on the mountain-top by his pursuer, he might have
been heard to cry out, in the bitterness of despair, "Hast thou found
me, O mine enemy?" Now, safe within the secure shelter, he can
rejoicingly exclaim, even with the Avenger standing close by, "O thou
enemy, destructions are come to a perpetual end."[2]

These _Cities of Refuge_ form one of the Old Testament PICTURES of the
sinner, and of the coming gospel salvation. This was the way God took to
teach the Jewish people great gospel truths. Just as we know that
youthful readers like a story-book all the better when it has got
p